Cozy Classics

Quality

Read-it-Again Score

Fun-and-Learning

Product Information

Cozy Classics published by Simply Read Books

Written by: Jack & Holman Wang

Illustrated by: Jack & Holman Wang

We recommend this book for kids ages 1 and up

What It Is

Cozy Classics is a series of board books by Jack & Holman Wang that take literary masterpieces and reduce them to 12 single words illustrated with photographs of felt sculptures. Books include Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, Leo Tolstoys' War and Peace, and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. These books use a simple one word/one image format to help babies and toddlers build vocabulary and learn everyday concepts such as body parts, emotions, animals, relationships, actions, and opposites. However, these words are organized through the context of a story, which helps children find further meaning through a growing sense of narrative.

Is It Fun?

What's remarkable about these books is the way that the creators have found the ideal 12 words and plot points in these admittedly sprawling novels that perfectly illustrate the arcs of the stories. Reducing the approximately 122,000 words of Pride and Prejudice or the more than 530,000 words of Les Miserables or the incredible 560,000 words of War and Peace to just 12 is no small feat. Kids and adults, however, will find the illustrations completely captivating, and these can be great conversation starters about the concepts and ideas raised by a single word with a picture. Adults who know these novels will find them especially fun, and they will make great gag gifts for these adults. And you can finally say without lying that you've read War and Peace at one sitting.

Who It’s For

Cozy Classics books are for ages 1–3, with a special appeal to adults who are familiar with the original novels.

What To Be Aware Of

For readers who forgot the original plot or want to build their child's understanding of the plot as they get older, mycozyclassics.com offers a fuller synopsis as well as a list of main characters and famous quotations from the original book.